One full week gone. I didn’t make it to 15k on Friday, but I am ahead of par with word count so it’s all good, and I am (hopefully) going to hit 20k today and 25k by the end of the day this Friday.

No, I’m not trying to be an overachiever by pushing so hard to be ahead of the minimum requirement. I’m just trying to give myself some padding in case life happens.

Like a doctor appointment next Monday that is going to take a bite out of my writing time. It’s nothing serious — I have to have some teeth pulled at the end of the month and it’s going to be done under general anesthesia. I made the mistake of admitting that I occasionally (rarely!) need an inhaler for allergy-induce asthma and now I need a note from my doctor that I won’t die in their office. And, of course, I can’t get the note without seeing my doctor — never mind that I don’t think I’ve used my inhaler at all this year.

So, anyhow. Life happens, and, sadly, it often happens to word count, so I try to have a cushion built in. Plus, I know from experience that once I hit 30k writing becomes a real struggle and every word has to be forced out of my fingers. (Once I hit 40k it’s all golden, but those 30s! Ugh!)

And now it’s update time.

So, just how is it going, working without an outline?Eh. It more or less sucks. I feel like I’m rambling far too much and am going to have to cut a lot out when I edit, as well as add stuff that I missed, and move stuff around into a better order.

On the other hand, though, it’s kind of fun to just ramble and see where I go.

But on the other hand (I’m a nurse and a fantasy novelist — I have as many hands as I need!) I feel like one of my characters is not acting like himself — an outline so that I knew what to expect would probably have prevented this meltdown.

But on yet another hand, Terhesh believes that his wizard, Azlea, is in danger, and pretty much all bets are off when a Warder is protecting his wizard.

So, what’s happening in the novel now?Well, I got them all out of the meeting. As expected nothing really got resolved. (This group of characters can talk in circles for hours. They should run for Congress.) Caristen did manage to accidentally destroy the letters, though, so at least they don’t have to worry about what to do with them.

And Terhesh got a letter stating that Azlea was being held captive by the evil wizards. (I really need to name their organization) and that he has to give himself to them and they’ll release her. The others have (for now, at least) convinced him that the letter was a lie and that Azlea is safe at her family’s home for the summer.

What happens next?Don’t ask me, I don’t have an outline, remember?

I think that Bazlo, the officer who is working against the Accord is going to try to get Terhesh off the school grounds so he can take him to the evil wizards.

And after that? Hmmmm… I think Yhonshel may have a surprise for Terhesh. (He and Brythel have gone to Tuanae Woods to try to get some information regarding who is trying to kill him and Radenth.)

And then I think that the as yet unnamed evil wizard at the school may have a shot at Terhesh. (Which means I should probably start calling him something other than “[NAME 1]”) And [NAME 1] is going to give them a clue, of sorts, when he mentions a necklace that Terhesh has. (I left myself a note about it the other day that said, “AHA! The necklace!” Um… Okay… I love notes that I leave myself. A couple days ago, though, I came up with more detail about said necklace and why they are so desperate to get it back, and I figured out how Terhesh came into possession of it, so I think I’m solid there. (And I wrote myself better notes this time.)

And that is about as far as my non-outline goes.

Except… I cut a huge scene out of this book and put it in Book 10, but now I’m thinking that maybe it belongs in this book after all, just not where and when I had it before. If I do move it back, it won’t count toward my word count because it was written in June.